Best Supporting Actor

And the Oscar goes to Mordechai…. and you!

The 85th Academy Awards are around the corner. Millions of people around the world will be glued to their TVs to learn who will be chosen as winners of the coveted Oscar awards. Originally, Oscars were only given to the best actor and actress. It was a decade later the film industry decided to add another award: Best supporting actor and actress.

This resonates with a message that has powerful implications for all of us.

Maturity, it’s well been said, is the time when we learn to reconcile our grandiose dreams with our realistic limitations. Growing up, I had to slowly shed some of the wished for self-images conjured up by my imagination. From my childlike worship of baseball stars and Olympic gold winners, I had to eventually acknowledge I would never be a Babe Ruth or a Jesse Owens. And even as my heroes changed from the physical world of athletics to the spiritual realm of rabbinic figures like Rabbi Soleveitchik and the Lubavitcher Rebbe, I had to face the daunting truth that I was simply not on a par with their level.

Perhaps I can receive a divine Oscar by using my talents in a supporting role that in its own way is just as important.

Yes, I could aspire to be like them. But with the passage of years I recognized there was no way I would ever reach their pinnacle of perfection. There are those who are simply better than I am. Yet, alongside of this humbling perception, it dawned upon me that in trying to fulfill the mission for which God sent me here on earth I don’t necessarily have to have the leading role. Perhaps I can make myself worthy of a divine Oscar by using my talents in a supporting role that in its own way might be just as important.

Mordechai’s Supporting Role

Jewish history is filled with stories that emphasize not only the heroes who played the leads but the supporting actors whose efforts helped make God’s plans possible to be realized. The biblical book which records the miracle of the story of Purim is named after Queen Esther. She is the one who asked the King to spare her people. She is the one who dared to come uninvited to the Persian ruler when her action might very well have resulted in her death. She is the one directly responsible for the hanging of Haman and the right granted to the Jews to defend themselves from the impending threat of genocide.

But none of that would have happened were it not for the behind-the-scenes advice, courage and wisdom of her uncle Mordechai.

Esther got her name on the Megillah’s marquee. On the surface, Mordechai seems to have no more than a supporting role. But without him it’s clear there would have been no Purim.

In Jewish tradition, there is no one as great as Moses. It is one of the 13 principles of our faith, as codified by Maimonides, that “there arose no one in Israel like Moses, a prophet who perceived His [God’s] likeness.” Moses played the leading role as liberator of the Jews from the slavery of Egypt, as lawgiver at Sinai, and as head of his people for the 40 years they wandered in the desert until they reached the Promised Land.

But even he did not suffice as leader. The Jews needed Aaron as well. Aaron loved and pursued peace. Aaron was the “people person” who was desperately needed as High Priest. And when Aaron died, the people mourned him greatly for 30 days. Like his brother, Aaron too deserved a divine Oscar for his part in a supporting role.

There are countless examples of bit players in the Bible. Each one’s contribution was significant. But there is one who needs to be mentioned above all. And it is someone who continues to play the part to this very day.

Your Starring Role

In a daring comment on the story of creation, the Jerusalem Talmud tells us that “God created man to become a partner in the act of creation.” God left the world unfinished so that humankind can play a role in its perfection.

Every one of us has a supporting role crucial to the heavenly script.

The story of life itself stars the Almighty but assigns to every one of us a part as supporting actor or actress. We all have a divine task in bringing the world closer to perfection. None of us would have been cast in the heavenly script for human existence if we didn’t have a specific purpose.

Our mission on earth is to discover our role, no matter how small a part we are meant to play. As parent, as friend, as professional or as dedicated worker, as someone who can bring a measure of joy to others or someone who can serve as a source of blessing to his or her community, each one of us needs to learn the reason why God felt it necessary to create us.

And when we play our supporting role to the very best of our ability we should take satisfaction in knowing that this too will merit our receiving God’s Oscar.

Featured at Aish.com:

About the Author

Rabbi Benjamin Blech, a frequent contributor to Aish, is a Professor of Talmud at Yeshiva University and an internationally recognized educator, religious leader, and lecturer. Author of 14 highly acclaimed books with combined sales of over a half million copies, his newest, The World From A Spiritual Perspective, is a collection of over 100 of his best Aish articles. See his website at rabbibenjaminblech.com.

The opinions expressed in the comment section are the personal views of the commenters. Comments are moderated, so please keep it civil.

Visitor Comments: 9

(7)
Anonymous,
February 22, 2013 10:00 PM

To commented #6 (Debbie), I say yasher koach. We women are very powerful and capable!! To Rabbi Blech, not one single human being is perfect. Yes, the rabbis you mention were great men. However, they had flaws that you did not detect because they did not WANT you to detect these imperfections. Good Shabbos to you and yours, and have a very Happy Purim!

(6)
Debbie,
February 22, 2013 2:36 AM

The statement "kol k'vuda bas melech p'nima" is often a turn-off.

Women don't want to feel that they're importance is only a backstage one. I teach in a school for girls, and I have to tell you; it's a womens' world, and boy are we powerful. The things we do impact the next generations of Jewish women!! We are molding the mothers of Israel.

Devorah,
February 24, 2013 10:53 PM

Rabbi Blech agrees with you!

Rabbi Blech refers to ESTHER getting her name on the "Megillah’s marquee", while MORDECHAI is the one he refers to as "best supporting actor."
How did you get from this to complaining that "[w]omen don't want to feel that they're importance is only a backstage one" or your comment (which I totally agree with, BTW ) that ""kol k'vuda bas melech p'nima" is a turn-off"?
I've never once heard Rabbi Blech preach "kol k'vuda bas melech p'nima" and I seem to recall him writing recently about proudly sending his daughter off to law school in times when it was much less common for any woman to attend law school than it is today.

(5)
Wassim,
February 22, 2013 1:10 AM

What an uplifting article

Hurray, we are all chosen to contribute.

(4)
Elya Goodfriend,
February 21, 2013 8:35 PM

Beautiful

I really found this article very inspiring and truthful. I feel like it proposes a very well balanced and healthy way of looking at our Gedolim, and the perspective we should see ourselves in comparison to them.!!!! Beautiful!

(3)
Anonymous,
February 21, 2013 3:02 PM

I love this article.

(2)
Dina,
February 20, 2013 3:16 PM

interesting

Interesting approach. I always thought of Mordechai as the main character and Esther, though a very great and brave woman, as one who was just following Mordechai"s instructions, which of course was also a greatness in itself. Perhaps the proof of her real greatness was in that she convinced the Sages to incorporate the miracle in Scriptures, and they accepted her opinion.

Elya,
February 21, 2013 8:34 PM

Same here, but I think the author brings up a good point and that is we see she got the name of the book; that seemingly points to the fact that she is considered the main character- the protagonist.

(1)
LVSteveo1,
February 19, 2013 4:52 PM

Our Life Purp[ose

We ALL have a role in life to 'perfect the world' in any manner we're able to do so. The point is that one cannot & should not, 'stand idly by' when there r opportunities to help others with the resources HaShem has blessed us with.

I've been striving to get more into spirituality. But it seems that every time I make some progress, I find myself slipping right back to where I started. I'm getting discouraged and feel like a failure. Can you help?

The Aish Rabbi Replies:

Spiritual slumps are a natural part of spiritual growth. There is a cycle that people go through when at times they feel closer to God and at times more distant. In the words of the Kabbalists, it is "two steps forward and one step back." So although you feel you are slipping, know that this is a natural process. The main thing is to look at your overall progress (over months or years) and be able to see how far you've come!

This is actually God's ingenious way of motivating us further. The sages compare this to teaching a baby how to walk. When the parent is holding on, the baby shrieks with delight and is under the illusion that he knows how to walk. Yet suddenly, when the parent lets go, the child panics, wobbles and may even fall.

At such times when we feel spiritually "down," that is often because God is letting go, giving us the great gift of independence. In some ways, these are the times when we can actually grow the most. For if we can move ourselves just a little bit forward, we truly acquire a level of sanctity that is ours forever.

Here is a practical tool to help pull you out of the doldrums. The Sefer HaChinuch speaks about a great principle in spiritual growth: "The external awakens the internal." This means that although we may not experience immediate feelings of closeness to God, eventually, by continuing to conduct ourselves in such a manner, this physical behavior will have an impact on our spiritual selves and will help us succeed. (A similar idea is discussed by psychologists who say: "Smile and you will feel happy.")

That is the power of Torah commandments. Even if we may not feel like giving charity or praying at this particular moment, by having a "mitzvah" obligation to do so, we are in a framework to become inspired. At that point we can infuse that act of charity or prayer with all the meaning and lift it can provide. But if we'd wait until being inspired, we might be waiting a very long time.

May the Almighty bless you with the clarity to see your progress, and may you do so with joy.

In 1940, a boatload 1,600 Jewish immigrants fleeing Hitler's ovens was denied entry into the port of Haifa; the British deported them to the island of Mauritius. At the time, the British had acceded to Arab demands and restricted Jewish immigration into Palestine. The urgent plight of European Jewry generated an "illegal" immigration movement, but the British were vigilant in denying entry. Some ships, such as the Struma, sunk and their hundreds of passengers killed.

If you seize too much, you are left with nothing. If you take less, you may retain it (Rosh Hashanah 4b).

Sometimes our appetites are insatiable; more accurately, we act as though they were insatiable. The Midrash states that a person may never be satisfied. "If he has one hundred, he wants two hundred. If he gets two hundred, he wants four hundred" (Koheles Rabbah 1:34). How often have we seen people whose insatiable desire for material wealth resulted in their losing everything, much like the gambler whose constant urge to win results in total loss.

People's bodies are finite, and their actual needs are limited. The endless pursuit for more wealth than they can use is nothing more than an elusive belief that they can live forever (Psalms 49:10).

The one part of us which is indeed infinite is our neshamah (soul), which, being of Divine origin, can crave and achieve infinity and eternity, and such craving is characteristic of spiritual growth.

How strange that we tend to give the body much more than it can possibly handle, and the neshamah so much less than it needs!